


memorabilia

by karnsteins



Series: the descent [1]
Category: The Outsiders - All Media Types
Genre: ...maybe? he ain't in the grave yet, ...why is darry's tag his full name, Gen, did zero research abt death protocols for the 60s you'll have to deal, graverobbing, mixing his book looks with movie costuming js, set towards the end-ish of the novel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:28:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26280397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karnsteins/pseuds/karnsteins
Summary: It was still protocol to identify the body. To collect effects. Ponyboy does something seemingly irrational.Companion to other fic, "i don't want to rest in peace" but could be read as standalone if you like.
Relationships: Ponyboy Curtis & Dallas Winston
Series: the descent [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1911538
Kudos: 14





	memorabilia

Dallas is dead. His body is in front of him, cold and unmoving. He looks like Johnny does, just flat out dead. 

Ponyboy is here, and he shouldn't be. Darry said he would do it, come and identify the body (the body, the body, inanimate, without life, no icy blue eyes waiting to stare, no slight snarl, nothing) for the police. Which was stupid, Ponyboy thought; they all knew (had known) Dallas. He had a rap sheet a mile long and then some, they all understood what a hood he'd been. 

Yet it was still protocol to identify the body. To collect effects. 

Just like their parents. 

The stupor he'd found himself in for weeks, for days lifted long enough for him to insist on coming. He thinks he scared Darry, even, when he insists on coming. Soda hadn't been there, and eventually, Darry had to agree to let him come. 

He's not sure what he expected here. Maybe to see if Dallas was more peaceful in death than life? Maybe to prove to himself that Dallas was really, truly dead?

There's a million thoughts racing in his head as he looks at Dallas' body merely feet from him. The hospital is cold, and Ponyboy doesn't like it, how Darry has to talk with the cop quietly feet away, right outside the door. 

There's probably something legal holding things up. It wasn't a secret that Dallas' parents hadn't ever cared what happened to him. Getting a hold of one of them was going to be a task in and of itself -- if they _could_. 

As Ponyboy continues to look at the lifeless body in front of him, the hysterical thought seized him that more than likely, Dally would be buried with what he was wearing. The pendant, the ring would go into the ground. Two things that really mattered to him, that he was always proud of having, that made him look tough. 

It seems wrong to have that be buried with him, and not kept. There wasn't going to be photos of him anymore, hell, Ponyboy didn't even know if the only photos of Dally were of mugshots. 

Later, he wouldn't be able to rationalize it, taking the pendant and the ring from Dallas' body, wouldn't be able to explain how quickly he did it, tucking them in the pockets of the jacket -- the one that still bore burn marks. He at least separates them, the ring going into a drawer, and the jacket, tucked away for a little while. 

He simply does it, with the hope that maybe he had salvaged something from this, something to keep, something beyond the memory of a hood, gunned down in the street that everyone else would remember.

**Author's Note:**

> this needs to have a series name but i'm blanking on one.


End file.
